Page 63 of The Baby Dragon Cafe
Why was he still speaking?Aiden closed his mouth.
“Right. And if the sage—Mireya—won’t do the ritual unless we’re married, I don’t think we have any choice, really,” she continued.
“Exactly.” He was still in shock, mind reeling. “I’ll get everything in order, and we can go next week?”
“Sounds good,” she said, nodding. “I’ll block the days off.”
He felt like throwing up. Even after he said goodbye for the evening, he could not get over the jitters running through his body. Aiden went home and headed straight for the kitchen, where he stress-cooked for over an hour, resulting in an inordinate amount of food that he had no idea what to do with.
In crisis, Aiden called Emmeline, asking her if she wanted to come over for dinner.
“I’ve just made a lot of pasta,” he told her. He wondered if this sounded strange because Emmeline paused for a moment. But her voice was normal when she replied, “Yes, sure. I’ll be over in ten.”
“Perfect.”
After Aiden hung up, he stared at his phone. Inviting Emmeline was dangerous; she was only going to harass him the moment she figured out something strange was going on, which would be immediately. He paced around his living room, plucking mint leaves from a plant and inhaling the fresh scent.
Aiden reached for his phone again, this time callingGenevieve. It rang twice, and he thought she wouldn’t pick up, but then she did.
“Hello?’
“What are you doing?”
“Homework. Why?”
“Oh. Emmy’s coming over for dinner so I thought you could come too if you wanted. But if you’re studying …”
“Oh my god, yes. I’ll tell Em to pick me up. I was about to throw my textbook to the dragons.”
He smiled. “Okay. See you soon, Gin.”
“See ya.”
The girls arrived shortly thereafter on Emmeline’s dragon, Torch. Sparky went outside to play with the basalta dragon, who he adored from their meetings at the Sterling estate, leaving Aiden alone with his sister and cousin.
Which was fine. Emmeline and Genevieve were their usually chatty selves, more involved with each other than interested in him, which he was used to. He simply enjoyed being around them, listening to their stories.
“I’m so glad you made these plans for dinner,” Genevieve told Aiden.
“You need any excuse to not study,” Emmeline said, laughing.
“No, literally. Dragon History is cool, but my professors this term are so boring. Like, hello, can we focus on the important things?”
They sat down and ate, continuing to chat, and Aiden felt better, less like throwing up. He relaxed, enjoying the girls’ company, and made it through dinner.
It wasn’t until he sat down on the couch afterwards andthey sat down on either side of him that he felt locked in all of a sudden. As if he’d fallen into a trap.
“So what’s going on?” Genevieve asked, inspecting his face.
“What do you mean? Nothing.” His voice was high.
“Oh come on,” Emmeline said, hitting his arm. “You are a stress-cooker. As in, you only ever make this much food when you’re stressed. So clearly something is up.”
“Something to do with Saphira, I’ll bet,” Ginny sang, looking pleased. Aiden scowled. They were both right, of course, but that didn’t mean he needed to be happy about it.
“If you must know, I am taking Sparky to Mount Echo for his first flight,” he said, sitting up straight. “So I am simply a touch nervous about that, since it is a big moment and all.”
“But that’s wonderful!” Emmeline said, overjoyed. “You have nothing to worry about.”
